Dec. 15, 2005 - 20:09 MST

YA' KNOW

Short article in today's Rocky Mountain News by Jennifer Loven of the Associated Press seems to describe a person who in spite of all deterrences of fact is still trying to have things both ways. Quoted in full:

BUSH TAKES BLAME FOR WAR BASED ON FLAWED INTELLIGENCE

WASHINGTON -- "President Bush said Wednesday the responsibility for invading Iraq based in part on faulty weapons intelligence rested solely with him, taking on the issue in his most direct and personal terms in the 1,000 plus days since the war's first shots."

"It is true that much of the intelligence turned out to be wrong," Bush said. "As president I'm responsible for the decision to go into Iraq."

"The president's mea culpa was accompanied by a robust defense of the divisive war."

"Saddam was a threat -- and the American people and the world is better off because he is no longer in power," Bush declared as he has before."

"Democrats were not moved by Bush's speech, the last of four designed to boost his credibility on the war and the public's backing for it."

"There was no reason for America to go to war when we did, and for the false reasons we were given," said Sen. Edward Kennedy, D-Mass."

"Bush offered few qualms about the failure to find any weapons of mass destruction in Iraq.

"He said foreign intelligence agencies -- including several for governments who didn't back his decision to invade -- also believed before the war that Saddam Hussein possessed them. And he said his administration has begun making making changes to the U.S. intelligence apparatus to head off future errors."

"The president also contended the Iraqi president had intended to restart weapons programs."

"As in the past, Bush acknowledged no regrets about launching the war despite the problems with his intial justification."

"He revisited a long list of other previously cited reasons, including Iraqi violations of a no-fly zone in its airspace, Saddam's invasion of Kuwait a decade earlier and Iraq's defiance of United Nations resolutions."

"My decision to remove Saddam Hussein was the right decision," the president said to polite applause from his audience at the Woodrow Wilson International Center for Scholars, a non-partisan forum for the sudy of world affairs."

"Bush has repeatedly noted that the decision to go to war was his responsibility."

"And he has acknowledged for more than a year that most of the intelligence behind the claims of Saddam's weapons programs turned out to be faulty. But he has never linked two so clearly and so personally."

"Still, some said they had hoped to hear more specific benchmarks."

"The American public, the Iraqi people and our brave troops still don't have any clarity about the U.S. military mission in Iraq," said Sen. Russ Feingold, D-Wis."

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He says, "It is true that much of the intelligence turned out to be wrong." And he says, "As president I'm responsible for the decision to go into Iraq."

Then Mr. Bush goes into the old song and dance, "Saddam was a threat -- and the American people and the world is better off because he is no longer in power," as he has said before.

In the article it says Bush said his administration has begun making changes to the U.S. intelligence apparatus to head off future errors." After he is out of office perhaps our intelligence ? apparatus ? will magically begin to work ? After the fact, of course. . . . . Further on is, "The president also contended the Iraqi president had intended to restart weapons programs."

It basically looks to me that Bush is saying, "Even if all the hoorah and we were loaded with faulty intelligence is true, I did the right thing.

A premptive war disapproved by many countries to my mind is inexcusable. I also have the feeling that "intellignece" was pressured to come up with information "false it might be" of hidden weapons of mass destruction and other supposedly evil machinations by Saddam.

I am sure that he and his minions were evil to the core, as are many administrations in our world of today, some of which are genocidal to the core. Yet we have not PREEMPTIVELY declared war on countries other than Iraq. Somehow it does not compute.

From what I have read, those CIA out of country prisons have been moved from Europe to North Africa or some where. Those prisons which our administration say are not there ? And yet when it was leaked the administration was after someone's neck for the leak.

Wonder what Mr. Bush will come up with on this regarding the flaw in the CIA. (Confirmed Idiotic Assortment) perhaps. Doesn't seem so intellgent to me.

But when slapped in the face with the bare facts and ugly truth his response might be, yeah, well, YA' KNOW . . . . . . . . . . . .

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